Big Rude Jake saw me busking on Bloor Street one cold Toronto night in 1991. He invited me to join his band, the Gentlemen Players, and I've been a member of one band or another ever since. Being in a band is like being in a family; you experience life together, victories and tragedies, global adventures, moments that forever change your path. It's also a bit like being a gangster, like you're getting away with something most people never experience.
Then there's the visceral experience of actually playing the music together, a group of people, sometimes three, sometimes ten or fifteen or twenty, all vibrating as one. And then you get the audience vibrating with you and it's the same thrill whether it's 30 people in a bar or 10,000 at a festival. This thing, sharing deep moments of human connection, it's the reason I play music.
Check out each of my projects above ↑
And there’s a full discography below ↓
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Cuckoo – 2024
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination
Global Roots Album of the Year
Blitzkrieg Cabaret
Opera Revue – 2019
Credits/Notes:
Apple Jack, Vox
Alabama Song, Vox / Flugelhorn
Moscow Apartment
Orange – 2018
Credits/Notes:
Orange, Flugelhorn
Michael Louis Johnson
Half Moon, Half Crazy – 2017
Credits/Notes:
Vox, Guitar, Flugelhorn
All songs written by MLJ
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
If I Had The Strength – 2017
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards nomination
World Music Group of the Year
Moscow Apartment
Self Titled – 2017
Credits/Notes:
Things You Do, Flugelhorn
If You Please, Flugelhorn
Francis and Isobel, Flugelhorn
Boogat
San Cristobal Baile Inn – 2017
Credits/Notes:
Viajar Con Tigo, Flugelhorn
with Lemon Bucket Orchestra
The Holy Gasp!
The Last Generation Of Love – 2015
Credits/Notes:
Bed Bugs, Flugelhorn
All The Animals, Flugelhorn
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Moorka – 2015
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards World, Music Group Of The Year
Juno Awards Nomination, World Music Album Of The Year
Now Magazine Reader’s Poll, Best Band In Toronto
Elliot Brood
Work And Love – 2014
Credits/Notes:
Mission Bell, Flugelhorn
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Lume, Lume – 2012
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Canadian Folk Music Awards nominations, New/Emerging Artist of the Year
World Music Group of the Year
Traditional Album of the Year
Instrumental Group of the Year
Juno Awards nomination, World Music Album of the Year
Indie88 Indie Award nomination
World Artist of the Year
Freeman Dre & The Kitchen Party
Red Door 2nd Floor – 2011
Credits/Notes:
Let’s Take the Show on the Road, Flugelhorn
Lemon Bucket Orkestra
Cheeky EP – 2011
Credits/Notes:
Flugelhorn
Michael Louis Johnson & The Red Rhythm
Saturday Matinee – 2010
Credits/Notes:
Vox, Trumpet
recorded live at The Communist’s Daughter
Monteith McCllum
A Different Path – 2010
Credits/Notes:
Vox, Trumpet, Cornet, Fugelhorn, Trombone
Nature Boy recorded live with Red Rhythm at the Communist’s Daughter
The Motorleague
Black Noise – 2009
Credits/Notes:
Hymn For The Newly Departed, Trumpet
The Old Soul
Gold – 2007
Credits/Notes:
Trumpet
Lysa Fina
Fairytale – 2007
Credits/Notes:
Producer & music arranger
All songs performed by The New Kings
The New Kings
Little White Liar – 2006
Credits/Notes:
Vox, Trumpet
All songs written, produced and arranged by MLJ
Kelly & The Kellygirls
We Love You, But Not As Much As We Love Ourselves – 2004
Credits/Notes:
Trumpet
The New Kings
Take Back The Streets! – 2004
Credits/Notes:
Vox, Trumpet
All songs written, produced and arranged by MLJ
The New Kings
Street Fighter EP – 2004
Credits/Notes:
Vox, Trumpet
All songs written, produced and arranged by MLJ
Kelly & The Kellygirls
Noise – 2004
Credits/Notes:
Trumpet
Amer Diab
The Year Of The Apology – 2003
Credits/Notes:
Producer and music arranger
Broken Social Scene
Feel Good Lost – 2001
Credits/Notes:
Cranleys Gonna Make It, Trumpet
Michael J’s Dimestore Orchesta
Crush – 2001
Credits/Notes:
Vox, Trumpet
All songs written, produced and arranged by MLJ, except:
Mack the Knife - Kurt Weill
The Mooche - Duke Ellington
Powerhouse - Raymond Scott
Kevin Hearn
Mothball Mint – 1997
Credits/Notes:
Potbelly, Trumpet
Big Rude Jake
Blue Pariah – 1996
Credits/Notes:
Trumpet, Executive Producer
Top Ten Indie Sales for 9 month at Sam the Record Man & HMV
Swing Baby, Single – Top 10 on Windsor/Detroit's 89X fir 9 weeks
Big Rude Jake
Big Rude Bootleg – 1994
Credits/Notes:
Trumpet, Executive Producer
Big Rude Jake
Butane Fumes & Bad Cologne – 1993
Credits/Notes:
Trumpet, Executive Producer
Top Ten Indie Sales for 9 month at Sam the Record Man & HMV
Big Sugar
Five Hundred Pounds – 1993
Credits/Notes:
Still Waitin’, Trumpet
Big Sugar
Self Titled – 1992
Credits/Notes:
Come Back, Baby, Trumpet
Wind May Do Damage
Self Titled – 1992
Credits/Notes:
Trumpet
Bourbon Tabernacle Choir
Superior Cackling Hen – 1992
Credits/Notes:
Rude Groove, Trumpet